I started thinking about the information I was learning about this issue so I made a video for theMSguide.com
This then caught the eye of many and amongst them was Professor Gavin Giovannoni at Barts in London. If you are in the MS world it is hard not to have heard of ‘Prof G’. At his request I wrote an article for the Barts MS Blog on the topic. It is all about a patient perspective on how the possibility of how not being able to generate a full immune response to the Covid vaccine stands to impact on the lives of everyone who takes the drug.
Things are changing fast in the Covid world and I am confident that this will be a temporary issue. Nonetheless, I hope it isn’t a long form of temporary. Here is the article:
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I uploaded a video to theMSguide.com a few days ago talking about my concerns as an ocrelizumab patient and how the potential lack of Covid vaccine response stood to impact my life. I am five full infusions into this DMT and the fact that it appears to severely impact the ability to generate a meaningful immune response after a Covid-19 jab is administered is no fault of anybody or anything. It is what it is at the moment and no amount of wishful thinking will change this.
However, were I to be on the brink of commencement of ocrelizumab, then it is an entirely different thing altogether. Prof G invited me to write a piece answering the question: ‘Should neurologists tell their patients about vaccine readiness before they start a specific DMT?’
In the vast majority of cases, patients are given the final say in the choice of DMT, so this becomes a rhetorical question. No one wants to think they had to make a choice with one eye closed.
Moreover, patients expect this level of engagement as a baseline, not a privileged treat, and all the patients I consulted prior to writing this simply couldn’t comprehend that their HCPs (Health Care Professionals) would even countenance not raising this in one of two ways.
Firstly, if you are embedded with a therapy, as I am, then the expectation is that my team of HCPs are proactive in identifying and contacting the entire affected cohort with the news and how it may affect them. Specifically, without alarming people, the fact that the level of protection afforded by the vaccine is probably not the same as everyone ‘normal’ and advice on what to do in the meantime, as well as the steps being taken to change this gap in knowledge so that correct guidance may be given.
Sure, the T-cells may generate some sort of an immune response, but as far as I and the clinical team that treats me in Oxford know – and I’d be delighted if someone can share hard info on this – there is no data to show that T-cell immunity is equivalent, 50% as good, 10% as good etc. Perhaps it is 100% equivalency to the immune response that an ‘ordinary’ person receiving a jab will enjoy? Who knows at this point in time? The only thing that is certain at the moment is uncertainty.
The second scenario is if a patient is shortly to commence treatment with any drug considered to impact vaccine response. Pre-Covid, it seems that with ocrelizumab, issues were already being flagged in some circles. Before I even started treatment, I was asked to get the following jabs: Hib+Men C (combo), Men ACWY, DPT if it was more than 10 years since my last (it was), Meningitis B (2 jabs 4 weeks apart) and a pneumococcal jab (preferably Pneumovax which is 23 valet but subject to very variable availability in the UK or alternatively Prevenar 13. 13 valent as the name suggests and the one I did get). All of this was because the neuropharmacist(s), the microbiologist(s), and the neurologist(s) were concerned that ocrelizumab or any of the mab drugs used in MS may negatively impact the recipient’s ability to generate the appropriate immune responses to vaccination. According to Dr Gabe DeLuca, the lead MS neurologist in Oxford, this protocol is now going to be adopted nationwide. Remember: this was before some bat in the Far-East even started sneezing and running a temperature later in 2019.
For both scenarios, there is also the question of the almost certain need for booster jabs in the future. The dosing schedule of ocrelizumab and the time it takes for the B-cells to repopulate sufficiently after a dose means that a patient is more likely to be off their DMT in order to stay current with Covid boosters than they are on it and treating their MS. I would prefer not to have to choose between enjoying the protection of a vaccine and what that means regarding my ability to participate in society in a relatively normal way or treating my MS.
I’d like to think that when HCPs learn about these emerging issues, their first instinct will be to wonder how this will impact their patients and immediately try to get in front of the problem. The next logical step would be to contact patients, explaining the issue and the implications for their lives, followed by suggestions/options to address this. Sadly, in certain parts of the UK, a few will sigh to themselves and see this as an added layer of hassle.
All this comes around to the question Prof G asked me to address. Yes. Indeed. Absolutely. Neurologists should tell their patients about vaccine readiness before they start a specific DMT. I and everyone I know with MS want to believe they are making a fully-informed choice.
I have then uploaded a second video a day ago reflecting some of the reactions to my first one from a week ago.
As it stands today I must continue to behave as if I am unvaccinated and still as vulnerable as I was, whilst gradually most around me will, through the vaccination program, be able to resume a more normal lifestyle. A lifestyle that I also enjoyed alongside them until lockdown affected us all. Until I have an assurance that a vaccine will work for me – therapy change seems the most obvious option as a layman – then I shall have to remain locked down. And that is wrong.
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The blog (a must read if you have MS or are a professional involved in the treatment of MS) is here: https://multiple-sclerosis-research.org/2021/04/guest-post-from-an-ocrelizumaber/
theMSguide.com blog 